Elon Musk Interview

Meet The Man Who's Revolutionizing The Future Of Driving - And The Universe

JC: Tooling around SpaceX with you, though, have any of them expressed interest in flying?

EM: One has -- I have five [laughs]. I want them to do things that will make them happy. I also want to make sure they’re not “trust-fund kids" that don’t add anything to the world. I just want them to add more than they take. That will be a great outcome.

JC: So good advice is to embrace what really interests you?

EM: People should pursue what they’re passionate about. That will make them happier than pretty much anything else. You want to do things you’re passionate about but also are useful to other people. For example, to make an embarrassing sort of admission here, I like video games [laughs]. In fact, that’s what got me into software engineering when I was a kid. I wanted to make money so I could buy a better computer so I could play better video games -- nothing like saving the world or anything like that. Obviously just playing video games is not really contributing to anyone. So you want to do things that contribute to society -- that you also like. In almost any industry, if you’re passionate about doing a great job and making people that buy your product or service as happy as possible, it's really fulfilling.

JC: You certainly have managed that. So many people look up to you for what you’re doing. I’ve interviewed Neil Armstrong and John Glenn, but when I mentioned I’d be chatting with you today, people went nuts.

EM: There’s a tendency to focus on one person and think somehow that person singlehandedly does these things. But it’s important to emphasize -- and I’m not just giving this lip service -- that the only reason I was able to accomplish things is the great people willing to work with me. A company is a group of people organized to create a product or service, and that product or service is only as good as the people in the company -- and how excited they are about creating it. I do want to recognize a ton of super-talented people. Without them, I would have accomplished very little. I just happen to be the face of the companies.